Norlén, Kerstin

Abstract [en]

This report is the result of a master thesis project in Industrial design engineering at Luleå University of Technology. It has been performed by request of the Department of Production Equipment at Sandvik Coromant AB in Sandviken, Sweden during the spring and summer of 2013.The Department of Production Equipment are designing and building machines for internal customers. The customers have expressed opinions about one of the machines, including ergonomic and usability problems. The goal of the project has been to analyze the machine, to find both strengths and weaknesses about it, focusing on ergonomics and usability to make suggestions about improvements.A project plan was created in the beginning of the project to get an overview of which tasks the project would include, and in which order. The method of the project has been an iterative process, several steps that are iterated to various degrees until the final concept has been developed.The analysis of the machine has included observations, interviews and a usability review. The observations were performed at all customer locations. The main goal of the initial observations was to get a better understanding of the basics of the machine and was later on a tool to see the different functions. Seven individual interviews and one focus group were performed. The interviewees’ relation to the machine varied, from operators to technicians and project leaders. The interviews were semi structured to allow the users of the machine to express as many of their opinions as possible, at the same time as it was possible to adapt the questions to each individual. During the usability analysis one operator was asked to set up, run and end an order. The whole process was filmed, and was used to mark which features in the interface that were used. All of the input that was collected during the analysis was summarized into a list. The list was discussed with the Department of Production Equipment to see which improvements that was possible to accomplish. The department wanted to keep the focus on a concept to the interface of the machine. The selected improvements were the base for a design specification, which was used to create a concept.The concept had its base in starting and running an order in the machine. The analysis had shown that the operators had problems understanding in which order the different tasks were supposed to be performed in the current interface. The concept was developed by using test persons, which were asked to use the different features. The test persons were both experienced and inexperienced users of the current interface. The final concept is an interface that are developed to be more intuitive and user-friendly then the current one. It guides the operator through the tasks of starting and running an order in the correct order, making it clear which task he or she is on.